East Africa
Swahili
KiswahiliA Bantu language shaped on the Indian Ocean coast, with Arabic, Persian, Portuguese and Indian loanwords from a thousand years of trade. It is an official language of the African Union.
- Family
- Niger–Congo (Bantu)
- Script
- Latin
- Speakers
- ~200 million speakers (mostly as a second language)
- Spoken in
- Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, DR Congo, Rwanda
The course
Five units, one word at a time
0/5 mastered
Unit 1
Greetings
Greetings are long in Swahili — skipping them is the rude part, not the words.
- Habari — Hello / how are things?
- Nzuri — Good / fine
- Karibu — Welcome
- Asante — Thank you
- Kwaheri — Goodbye
- Shikamoo — Respectful greeting to an elder
Unit 2
People and family
The words you need to talk about who is who.
- Mtu — Person
- Watu — People
- Mama — Mother
- Baba — Father
- Rafiki — Friend
- Mtoto — Child
Unit 3
Numbers one to ten
Counting, prices and time all start here.
- Moja — One
- Mbili — Two
- Tatu — Three
- Nne — Four
- Tano — Five
- Kumi — Ten
Unit 4
Food and the market
Enough to buy lunch and ask what something costs.
- Chakula — Food
- Maji — Water
- Ngapi? — How much?
- Ghali — Expensive
- Soko — Market
- Ninataka — I want
Unit 5
Getting around
Directions, help and the everyday phrases travellers reach for.
- Wapi? — Where?
- Twende — Let's go
- Pole pole — Slowly
- Samahani — Excuse me / sorry
- Sielewi — I don't understand
- Tafadhali — Please
How to sound right
- Stress almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable: ha-BA-ri.
- Vowels are pure and never glide: a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in for, u as in flute.
- Nouns come in classes, and the class changes the prefixes on words around it — mtu (person) / watu (people).
The audio button in lessons uses your device's speech engine, which rarely has a native African voice. Treat it as a rough guide and trust the written pronunciation hints and the coach instead.
Enjoying this without interruptions?
Go ad-free across the whole of MOTHERLAND from £0.99 a month. Creating a free account takes a moment.